Just Random Thoughts and Pics to Share

Another of our 'fun' inquiries. The girls were to research and make a "macaroni" hairdo out of shaving cream. You can't tell from the picture but they each had either a 'queue' or ponytail hanging off the back, or a bun. This was tons of fun for them until it came to the clean up part. They had shaving cream EVERYWHERE!!!!

Just a few pictures from Halloween. If you know me, you know I have an intense 'dislike' for Halloween. Therefore I do not go all out for it and I'm happy(?) to note that my attitude seems to be rubbing off on the kids. All but the youngest two decided not to dress up and go trick-or-treating. (14 year old changed his mind at the last minute and went out with friends). But we confined our celebrating to carving pumpkins, answering the door to trick-or-treaters, and eating the leftover candy--trick-or-treaters were gone by 7:30. We made jack-o-lantern pizzas and watched a movie as well. We did dress up the Soren and Sadie and let them go up one side of our street and down the other. Can't figure out why the girls laid out the plastic and then carved the pumpkins on the concrete anyway. What was the point?

Curtis has been working on building himself a larger shed in the place our old small one used to be. Part of the project included removing the concrete pad that was the floor. It was such a difficult task, he had to recruit some 'help'! Any bets on how effective this 'help' was? It was the cutest thing ever. You should have seen his eyes light up when Curtis asked him if he wanted a turn. (he does have eye protection on, it's just hard to see)

Pregnancy front: Just did the glucose screen last week. Haven't heard back yet, but don't anticipate any problems. I did get a call that my iron was low, so back on iron pills I go. Ick!! I've only had problems with this in these last two pregnancies. Wonder if it's because I'm so "old"?

Mission front: Doing well, from what we hear. Still busy working in several small towns. Has one really good investigator family they are working with. Hopefully, that will lead to some baptisms. He loves that he is within the two hour radius of the temple in Billings so that he can attend the temple once in a while. He was able to go last week. He said it's getting cold, and snow has been seen. Hope he's warm enough. I need to get some Christmas things together for him. 

So excited for Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday!! Interesting that it follows on the heels of my least favorite...Hmmmm. Looking forward to time with family and lots of yummy food.

Inquiry Fun!!

We have been trying to make working on our 'inquiries' as fun as possible. Just thought we'd share a couple that have been lots of fun for us. This is 13 Colonies Twister. We (Mom) drew a very lame map of the 13 Colonies on our driveway. Mom had made a card with the name of each colony on it as well as a card for each hand and foot. To play, Mom would read which body part and then the name of a colony, and the player had to try to reach them without falling over. Hannah gets the award for the person most able to contort her body in strange positions and still stay in the game. This was a highly requested game and in fact, it became Math Facts Twister later in the week. We drew a grid on the driveway and numbered it to 24. Then Mom would roll two dice and pick a body part card and the player had to add the numbers together and put the correct body part on the correct number. We only did addition, but will probably do a subtraction one in the future. This is a 13 Colony quilt that the girls made from paper squares. They made a square for each colony and wrote on them the name and how the name was chosen. Then they had to figure out a pattern for the quilt and how many other colored squares they needed to complete the pattern and then tied it all together. This will hang in our History Museum at the end of the year.

An Amazing Woman!

We have just finished up another 'topic' in our American History study. We have spent the last couple of weeks learning about Abigail Adams. I have come to really admire and appreciate this wonderful woman. I think she was a unique woman with experiences and talents that were crucial to her mission. I also loved the wonderful love story between her and John. They were so good for each other. She kept him down-to-earth and he helped her to reach her potential. We had the wonderful opportunity to have her come to 'visit' us. She came one morning to introduce herself to us and told us many of her experiences and life history. We learned a lot about her at the 'tea' we had and became very excited to learn more.

We learned that she was 'homeschooled' too, because her health was not good. She loved to listen, read and think and write.

After 'Abigail' left we also had a visit from the Yankee Peddler. He brought around his box of items for sale and the girls each got out the 'shillings' they had earned and carefully made their purchases. It was interesting to watch them try to buy everything in the box and spend all their money, then think about it a bit more and put most things back. Cambria only bought her wooden spoon and is saving her shillings to buy a marble set. Hannah bought only the big marble and is saving to buy the rest. Sadie wanted to spend all her money, but in the end bought a wooden spoon and a pair of folding scissors. I was happy to see them be more conscientious consumers. Soren bought himself a little wooden truck toy.

Some of the favorite 'inquiries' done by the girls were:

learning a colonial dance called "Gathering Peascods" peascods is another term for peapods.

designing and illustrating a dress for her to wear to John's inauguration in 1797

draw a portrait of Abigail from a real picture of her

Research and record what kinds of chores Abigail did and what kinds of activities filled her time. Play charades, using the list made of chores and activities

Research what pewter is made of and how it's made

Research and calculate how old she was when John signed the Declaration of Independence

Research foods eaten during that time and prepare one--Indian pudding, made of cornmeal, molasses, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, milk. (Note: the girls think molasses is awful smelling!)

They Set Me Free!

What a cute little ear! I went for a follow-up ultrasound on Friday. At the first u/s the heart looked good, but it was so small it wasn't possible to see the smaller veins, so the perinatologist requested that I return in 6 weeks to get a better look. This time I took Curtis and the girls and Soren. The girls have been excited to 'see' the baby. The baby did NOT want us to see his face. This was as close as we got to seeing his profile. Although later the dr. did get a good look at the nose and lip area. No clefts.

So amazing to see all those functional body parts, bones, organs, etc. and realize that they are absolutely tiny still.

They were able to get a good look at the heart and the aorta and the pulmonary artery. Everything looked just like it should. They measured the main measuring points again and I'm measuring exactly right for dates. No changes to the due date! Rats! I was hoping they'd move it up. They told me that by the measurements the baby is about 10 inches long and weighs about 1 lb and 3 oz.

But the best part was when the dr. said, "I see no compelling reason why you should need to see us again." HOORAY!!

p.s. Much to my Sadie’s chagrin, it's still a BOY! She was really hoping it would have changed. Silly girl.